For those of you who have mastered the dark art of reading your Kindle books in LingQ, I need more help. I have managed to get the deDRM plugin loaded into Calibre and to get a Kindle book loaded into Calibre, but I can’t figure out what to do next. Some instrux I’ve found online indicate that the plugin should immediately detect the Kindle book and word it’s magic automatically, but I don’t find that’s the case. How do I run the plugin so I can render the Kindle book into a state that enables Calibre to convert it to a form LingQ can read?
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After you install the plugin and open the book (it shouldn’t already be in your library), can you read it from Calibre? If so, you should be able to convert it into some Lingq-readable format (I find mobi works better) and then import it
If the plugin has done its work you can find the book in epub format in the calibre library: this pc/documents/calibrelibrary/name of the author/title of the book . When you start the import procedure by clicking on the + symbol in LINGQ, then on import ebook, you go there (=to the title of the book in the calibrelibrary) and click on the title.
Updating my long journey with this process. I’ve managed to get three books into Lingq readable form from Kindle, but ironically not the one I most want to read. This time I tried to put it through Calibre and got the message shown below.
This is an Amazon KFX book. It cannot be processed. See Dealing with Kindle for PC/Mac 1.19 and KFX in calibre - MobileRead Forums for information on how to handle KFX books.
Any thoughts?
Hi Cheska, I suppose that you got those three books into Lingq after having successfully de-drmed them. Am I right?
As for the KFX book, on that mobileread site they give four methods you could try. Personally, I’d try the fourth one.
Thanks again. I’ll give the fourth method a try tomorrow.
I got the other books into Calibre and presumably the deDRM plugin automatically did its work as when I tried to convert them to txt format, it worked fine. I just can’t figure out why Calibre is changing its behavior now.
Bumping
I haven’t tried the Calibre method, but I found a work around. I highlight a page in the Kindle book and it is automatically saved to the Notes and Highlights page at Amazon. Then I just copy and paste that highlight into a lesson page on LingQ. It makes a nice small lesson with about 5 or 6 parts. I read that in LingQ and then load the next page. It’s a little slow, but it works. I don’t do anything with the DRM as Amazon handles all of that.
This method will work for a few chapters in the book, but eventually you’ll reach a copy/paste limit set by Amazon or the publisher at which point you can no longer copy from that book.
As I mentioned before, this is a bit of a moving target. It will depend also on your OS version and the version of the Kindle app you’re using etc. In my case, I have to keep an older version of the Kindle app on my computer in an alternate folder which downloads books with an older type DRM than the latest version. This is unfortunately the kinda trouble shooting you have to do sometimes to make this process work.
I highly recommend you search for workarounds on more techie forums.
That’s sad.
At what point did you hit this limit? I’m up to twelve pages so far and have not hit a stopping point. I delete the highlighting each time I import a lesson, so maybe Amazon only sees that as one highlight? I’m going to keep going and see if I hit a stopping point. It’s slow, but so far, so good.
If I remember correctly it was a fairly large chunk of text, maybe up to ten chapters’ worth but eventually I reached the limit. But it might depend on the book and the publisher. Some books are sold without DRM, even on Amazon.
@cheska99 I have been converting kindle books for a few months now, never had a problem. the key to get it to work is to use an old version of the kindle software. While I don’t recall which version is the latest to still work for all conversions, 1.17 for mac does work (that’s the one I have).
But how does one get an older version of the Kindle software for Mac? I am running the Sierra and have the most updated version of the Kindle software. How do I revert?
I have struggled with this for so long, I am finally about ready to give up. I keep seeing so many posts that say “just download Calibre and the DeDRM plug in and it is easy.” But I have spent hours on this and have had no success. Clearly there is more to it than that. And judging by the number of posts I have seen from those who have not been able to get it to work, it is obviously not as simple as people make it sound. I have have looked up several websites and followed their directions every step of the way and still get error messages.
It is really frustrating because I love the idea of importing books to read in Lingq. I find the Lingq approach fantastic for me, but I really just don’t care for most of the content that is there. I am coming to the realization that I can duplicate most of the Lingq experience just using my kindle, an imported Spanish/English dictionary, and the highlighter feature. I simply use different colors of highlighter to represent the different levels of comprehension.
The thing I still miss out on though is the ability to have words I have previously encountered highlighted when I come across them later. So my Kindle workaround is only useful when I re-read a chapter. I don’t get the word count either of course, but to some extent that is just a form of external motivation and doesn’t really mean anything in terms of my abilities. I don’t really need that, I am pretty self motivated with my language learning. But the ability to have all my reading material in one place with words lingqing across various materials is something I miss.
I just wish someone who has been able to get this to work could really post a thorough, easy to follow, step by step way to import using Calibre for those of us who may not be as tech-savvy as those who have made it work. I would be eternally grateful for something like that.
What version of operating system do you have and what version of Kindle software are you using?
I just want to mention another option. This method costs but was worth the money to me. I used to do the Calibre plugin method but it often seemed hit and miss in seeing my kindle books. The method I use now is a program called Epubor and I think it is about 20 to 25 usd. It works quickly and flawlessly every time. The only caveat is that like maybe others mentioned, you have to keep a version of Kindle that is version 1.17 and also uncheck the option for it to update automatically. If mine updates, I just uninstall and reinstall.
Epubor Ultimate has a 30 trial so maybe you might be able to do the one book you want without buying it… but again I don’t know what limitations the trial has.
good luck.
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